As long as LeBron James remains in Cleveland, the Cavs will be the team to beat for any team pining to get out of the East.

Despite all the noise, drama and finger-pointing, there was no way the Cavs weren’t going to make the post-season, unless James suddenly gets shut down with an injury.

And given his history of always persevering through whatever discomfort, it simply wasn’t going to happen.

Now with the Cavs getting younger, more athletic and — on paper — more inclined to play team-first basketball, the James-led gang continues to be the team the likes of Boston, Toronto and perhaps even Washington, once the Wizards get point guard John Wall back and begin to play with some semblance of unity and rhythm, must dethrone.

In a seven-game series, it still seems daunting for anyone to beat LeBron four times, but time will tell.

“In my opinion they still have one of the best players in the world and whether they had the old team or this team, I feel it’s the same,’’ said Raptors president Masai Ujiri. “He’s the constant. That’s the way I feel about it.

“All the chaos that was being made about them this and them that, I don’t see that. On the overall, we have to look at ourselves and our focus and what we are doing rather than what other people are doing because if I remember in the summer, it was the same thing when that deal (Kyrie Irving moved to Boston) was done in the summer, everyone went crazy (about) those two teams, now it’s between them and blah, blah, blah.

“This is the NBA and the reality of the NBA is we are built around chaos and drama, we deal with it every day and more drama is coming. There is plenty more drama coming and we have to deal with it.

“For now, we’ll deal with the ones we have.”

Ujiri is right on all counts.

The daily routine of life in the NBA always features some player or agent, in some cases some family member, griping about something.

When minutes are reduced, the whining increases, but the good teams, or at least those who know how to manage any issue, keep it in-house.

When the Cavs got blown out by Houston, the astute Jalen Rose, a one-time Raptor, went on national TV and suggested the players had quit on King James.

Love isn’t coming back anytime soon following his hand injury and with no Irving there’s no player who can create late in the shot clock.

If anything, James will now be asked to do more, which he’s capable of doing, only this time the infusion of new faces and more athletic pieces who will be asked to defend he’ll have a captive audience.

“I mean, I really don’t care,’’ said DeMar DeRozan of the trade deadline frenzy that rocked Cleveland and, by extension, the NBA. “Honestly. You know me, I just worry about my team, worry about us, what we gotta do to continue to get better.

“We can’t really focus and worry about what everybody else doing.”

Perhaps a less experienced and less mature DeRozan would have maintained a different posture in a previous incarnation, but he’s fully aware of what’s required and how teams must take care of their own business and avoid the temptation of worrying about others.

The Raptors have a good thing going, having won all four games of a four-game homestand, all four wins in decisive fashion.

When they blew out Cleveland on Jan. 11, the Raptors nearly rebounded from a huge deficit to push Golden State.

Some late-game execution issues cost Toronto wins against Philly, Minnesota, Utah and Washington, but overall the team has played well.

The Raptors don’t play until Sunday afternoon in Charlotte before returning home to play the Miami Heat on Tuesday.

The all-star break officially kicks off late Wednesday night after the Raptors play on the road against Chicago.

At 38-16, it’s conceivable the Raptors might have 41 wins at the break, with 25 games to be played once they return.

‘IT WAS TIME’ FOR BRUNO TO GO

A day after he traded Bruno Caboclo, and four years after Ujiri used the 20th overall pick to select the unknown prospect, Raptors president Masai Ujiri explained the move.

“That’s a difficult one,’’ said Ujiri. “It was difficult for us because I just thought it was time. We tried to, we started the right process a little late, which is something we failed at but I think we’ll learn from.

“At some point, I think there needed to be some separation where he goes and learns something different somewhere else. On the part of talent, I think we got that part right. He is a real talented kid.

“But in the process we got the D-League team a couple of years later and it’s a question from me whether he should have stayed over. There were little things Bruno needs to deal with that I think he’ll get better at.

“But at the end of the day, I thought this was better because for where we are with our young guys and for where he is to come and try and break through, it would have been like a challenge for him. Obviously, this was a decision-making year for us in terms of going forward.”

The Raptors were off Friday, returning next to the practice court Saturday.

In return for Caboclo, the Raptors acquired Malachi Richardson from Sacramento.

Ujiri was asked about the benefits of the trade.

“We take financials into consideration but we’re looking at talent first and foremost,’’ he said. “That’s the way you look at your team. Regardless if it’s next year, however we have to fill up our roster, we are going to have to do it with minimum guys or young talent and we thought this, Malachi, was a talent that we would take a chance on and see where it goes.

“I think he fits our program and how we’re trying to develop a long-wing who can shoot it and how that translates.”